July 8, 2018 Sermon

Just a few days ago, on July 6, 2018, Asahara Shoko, the leader of Aum Shinrikyo, wasexecuted along with six others of his membership. Asahara created and led a cult thatcarried out the deadly mass murder in Japan twenty-three years ago in 1995. He was triedand sentenced to death in 2006, but there were twelve other co-conspirators whose trialsneeded to be heard. So, the execution was delayed, probably in case they needed histestimony.Asahara founded Aum Shinrikyo in 1984. He quickly attracted thousands of disciples,telling them of impending apocalypse. Japan would be engulfed in the flames of nuclearwar, he said. Although many of Aum’s disciples were highly educated scientists, they wereall easily manipulated by Asahara to commit horrible acts. On Asahara’s order, theysynthesized VX nerve agents, and manufacturing automatic rifles, for example.The killings actually began in November of 1989, when Tsutsumi Sakamoto along withhis wife and child were silenced to protect the organization. Sakamoto was an attorney whohad been working on a class action suit against the cult. Cult members entered Sakamoto’sapartment and injected him and his family with potassium chloride as they slept. Aum wasbehind other crimes such as the Matsumoto Sarin Incident which occurred in Matsumoto ofNagano Prefecture, on June 27, 1994. Eight were killed and over five hundred werehospitalized. The motivation behind the Matsumoto Sarin Attack was originally to kill thejudges who were presiding over court cases investigating charges of fraud against the AumShinrikyo. Of all of their crimes, none was more reprehensible than the March 20, 1995incident in which cult members conspired and released sarin gas in five subway carriagesfull of passengers commuting during Tokyo’s rush hour. Thirteen people were killed, and5,500 were injured.How did all this happen? It began when a sister of Kariya Kiyoshi escaped the cult.Kariya Kiyoshi was kidnapped and brought to Aum’s headquarters in Kamikuishiki nearMt. Fuji. He was injected with sodium thiopental to force him to reveal where his sisterwas. Kariya, an elderly man, fell into a coma and died. The cult leaders microwaved hisbody, and scattered his ashes. Many suspected Aum’s involvement because Kariya had lefta note that read, “If I disappear, I was abducted by Aum Shinrikyo.” Finding leads,however, was difficult and its investigation stalled. Later, a Yomiuri Shimbun article brokethat traces of Sarin had been detected in Kamikuishiki’s soil. Asahara and his core grouppanicked when they found out that they were in the crosshairs of the police. Cult memberspoured most of the chemical stockpile into streams. Other chemicals were buried or burned.And, equipment related to their manufacture were moved to other Aum properties. Parts fortheir AK-47 rifles were thrown into dams. Finally, records were destroyed. Anything thatwould raise suspicions about the organization’s clandestine activities were eitherdismantled, moved, or demolished.Then, on the day that the police were going to raid them, the 1995 Kobe Earthquakestruck, killing more than 6,000 people. This effectively distracted the attention of thepolice. Asahara convinced many in his group that the earthquake was a sure sign that theend of the world was near. To divert the attention of the police, Asahara and his mendecided to release sarin gas within the cabins of five trains that would converge uponKasumigaseki, the station nearest to Tokyo’s police headquarters. The effects of sarinexposure is immediate and devastating. People bled from their noses and mouths whilevomiting. Sarin also affects the nervous system, so commuters staggered, and many wereunable to escape.In two days, the police raided all of Aum’s properties. What they discovered washorrifying. They found over fifty emaciated people detained in steel containers. And in thebasement of the buildings, there were blackened barrels where the bodies of murdereddissident members were disposed.How could something like this happen? Whenever you have unbridled power and wronginformation, something like this can easily occur. I am very concerned of many newreligions like Aum Shinrikyo because they purport something divine when there is not.Asahara was supposed to have gained his spiritual powers upon the Himalayas. Apparently,he could levitate himself. When the cameras entered the Aum properties, their believerscould be found jumping up and down while cross-legged, trying to levitate. Anotherproblem is that Asahara stole many Buddhist teachings and repackaged them to serve hisends.When there is a charismatic personality leading an organization, whether is religious,institutional, or governmental, one must be wary. There is nothing wrong with charisma byitself. It only turns ugly when people are fed wrong information. Nichiren Shonin wrote inhis Dannotsu-bo Go-henji that, “All phenomena which occurs in the world are not incontradiction with the teaching”. In other words, the Buddha’s teaching is a reflection ofnature and our world as it is. Any teaching must be an explanation of the workings of ourworld. In other words, the teaching is truth itself. If and when one bends the teaching to fithis or her own agenda, that is when you have the beginning of a cult. Asahara borrowedmany concepts of Buddhism to bolster and give his own teaching an air of loftiness, but hecompletely modified or twisted its interpretation to his advantage. In most cases, I thinkthat Asahara’s changes to the Buddha’s teaching extracted the element of truth from them.The teachings were no longer in correspondence with life as it is or should be.(Eisei Ikenaga)